For Humor And Museum Lovers: My Top 16 Cartoons

I’m a fan ofBored Panda, so it is a real treat to share my own stuff here. I’ve been creating humor my whole life and have appeared in MAD magazine, National Lampoon, SPY magazine, The New Yorker, and many others. I hope you enjoy the drawings!

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It’s very difficult to make a living solely from cartoons, so I also do other jobs…like teaching. If you are familiar with any of my work, it may be this one as it is popular around the world. I’ve seen it painted on a doorway in India. I’ve seen it tattooed on someone’s backside.

Cartoon of hikers with Rubik’s cubes as heads, one climbing, one meditating on a rocky mountain ledge.

One of my goals when I started the museum book was to humanize museums, make them fun, even witty. My first impression of museums, as a kid, was that they were homework! I’ve since learned how exciting they are, no matter what your interests. They have even inspired many cartoons about museums.

I married my college nemesis after we ran into each other a dozen years later (at a funeral). You never know.

Cartoon of Darth Vader at a class reunion, humorously mistaken for a former classmate.

I’ve lived in New York City my whole life. I’m originally from the South Bronx of New York City and now live not far away at the northern tip of Manhattan with my wife.

Cartoon of men at night by a bridge, one smoking, two carrying a sack with the caption “There goes that new-car smell."

And of course, museums have inspired me in oh so many ways. I’m an illustrator, and after visiting a museum like MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts, or The American Visionary Museum in Baltimore, I couldn’t wait to get home and create…anything. Visiting so many museums in a short period of time––a year or so––was life-changing and opened my eyes not only to the endless beauty and art out there but also to a general sense of being. Museums are giant selfies, reflecting everything we’ve done on this planet, even the unusual or bad (yes, thereisa Museum of Bad Art and a SPAM Museum…). One highlight I recall was hearing that the head of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the greatest museum in North America, loved my book.

I have since published two books on the subject, with the last in 2018 called the Illustrated History of the Snowman. It’s being adapted into a movie.

Cartoon: A snowman in an office chair being interviewed by a man, with the caption about future aspirations.

I often include people from my life in my cartoons. Especially if it will help pay the bills. The patient here is my mentor, the late Sam Gross, who was the best cartoonist in the world. I tried cartooning on a dare from him. I sold the first cartoon I drew two weeks later to the New Yorker.

Doctor holding a toy monkey beside a patient in hospital bed; humorous cartoon scenario.

The first thing I, myself, found funny was the comic strip Peanuts. I remember tracing that cartoon to learn how to draw.

Cartoon of tangled wind turbine with kite and light bulb, set in a field, perfect for humor and museum lovers.

I worked as a carpenter at one point and love doing home projects myself. Of course, I have no choice because I can never find someone to show up.

Cartoon of a milk carton labeled “My Contractor” with a missing person style photo on it.

The key to success in the arts is to tap into your own life experiences and make them your own, giving you an individual voice. Everyone is weird. I’m weird, you’re weird, everyone is. So tell your own story, and it will be interesting to others.

Here is another cartoon for the upcoming holidays. It can take a few minutes to come up with a good idea for a cartoon…or sometimes I can work on a cartoon for a year or two before it kind of works. I’ve done about 2,000 cartoons. Some of them I like!

Cartoon of a boardroom meeting with people having pumpkin heads, humorously discussing budget cuts.

The first audience I tried to make laugh was my family, of course. They were a tough crowd.

Cartoon of people at a Thanksgiving table wearing 3D glasses, humorously labeled “The First 3-D Thanksgiving."

I love writing humor, too, and today I do stuff for American Bystander, Funny Times, AirMail Weekly, and Writer’s Digest. I had a piece come out in November and I was on the cover of that issue. That being said, I feel very lucky to have all their support and that I get to make people laugh for a living.

Humorous cartoon-style images with various captions for both humor and museum enthusiasts.

Before that, I was the world’s leading snowman expert. I had spent 7 years solving the great mystery, who made the first snowman.

Cartoon shows a snowman playing a trumpet while a snowplow approaches, combining humor and art.

I’ve been doing a lot of driving the past year while working on an exciting new project…

Humor cartoon depicting relationship warning lights with humorous symbols and captions.